Hello everyone,

I wanted to give you all a status update on how I'm doing. I'm alive, but I've been struggling, mentally and environmentally. As it stands, I'm currently the only member of my household that has access to any kind of income in the war zone that is my home. The stress of this, the fact that my home country is under attack, and constant power outages have given way to depression. I'm angry with myself for this, because I feel I've let everyone down who has entrusted me with their ideas, and that vicious cycle further makes me struggle to create.

As you may be aware, things where I live have not been going smoothly, to put it mildly. On November 23rd, there was a massive attack on Kyiv, the city I call home. This attack lead to a blackout lasting over 39 hours, including 15 hours without water nor access to any kind of internet via my phone. Thankfully, water has been restored and I've made sure to bottle a sizable amount should this happen again, but power is spotty at best. In other positive news, I DO have a small power bank that was fully charged before the blackout began. Over the course of those 39 hours, this power bank has been run flat and my mobile device was down to 54% charge by the time the light appeared.

Drawing by candle light, as much as it has been romanticized by stories of the middle ages, is not all its cracked up to be; my eyes grow tired quickly, meaning I can't draw at night. To combat this and to help me break free of this cycle of stressed over owed work, I'm going to be purchasing an additional power bank and a small lamp that can run off of it using credit on my card. Even without power, I am determined to keep creating for you, because it's better than simply sitting here, doing nothing, waiting for the next blackout or the next series of explosions to rock my homeland.

I don't like to write about my problems, and I'm even more so too proud to ask for help, but I've finally reached the point that I understand I can't do this by myself. I don't want to take on more work because I've got an already lengthy queue and it will be quite some time before I can start on any new orders I take. That said, I do need to ask for a hand up, not a hand out. If you don't mind knowing there will be a long wait ahead of you, I'd be open to talking about more work.

You can also support me on Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/FelanGrey ), or send funds directly via PayPal ( felan-grey@ukr.net ).
I'll be doing my best to post sketches and WIPs of my current works on my Discord ( https://discord.gg/2VZxaJmSm5 ), and do my best to be available for contact there as well.

As always, any support you can provide is hugely appreciated, emotional, financial, or otherwise. 🧡
I will get through this, it's just going to be a rough road ahead.